P055Chloroplast Genome Sequencing of 7 Crocus Species through Illumina Platform from Total DNA
The genus Crocus L. belongs to the large family Iridaceae and comprises some 110-150 species with an old world distribution with the center of diversity in Mediterranean-Europe and Western Asia . The economically important and cultivated species of the Crocus is Crocus sativus L. which is the most expensive cultivated herb in the world. Phylogenetic analyses based on DNA marker techniques could only provide a moderate resolution of Crocus genotype relationships, however an accurate phylogenetic tree is needed to clarify their evolutionary history. Chloroplast genome sequencing is an alternative choice for resolving phylogenetic relationships. Chloroplast genomes provide a wealth of information for diversity and population genetic studies. Despite the economical importance of Crocus L., very little is known about its chloroplast genomes. Next generation sequencing technologies enable economical sequencing of complete chloroplast genomes in many plants. Here we report a complete sequence of the 21 genotypes from 7 Crocus species chloroplast (cp) genomes based on Illumina sequencing. Firstly, the cpDNA fragments of each genotypes were amplified by PCR using 25 universal chloroplast primer pairs developed by Scarcelli et al. (2011) and all of the fragments were completely sequenced using Illumina Genome Analyzer II. Chloroplast genome sequences of seven Crocus species were compared with other close species for which complete cp genome sequences are available. The complete cp genome sequence of Crocus species reported in the study will facilitate population, phylogenetic and cp genetic studies of this important plant.